Homophobia Is Alive and Well in Hollywood
August 05, 2021 at 07:22PM Carmen Logie remembers the very first time she heard of HIV/AIDS. It was the mid-1980s and she was about 10 years old when she saw a billboard that read “AIDS kills.” This jarring introduction to an unknown concept confused her. She remembers thinking, “What is this? AIDS kills?” Now an associate professor in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto and a Canada Research Chair in Global Health Equity and Social Justice, she says this kind of HIV/AIDS messaging in the media contributes to the othering of LGBTQ+ communities. After seeing recent headlines about well-known celebrities using homophobic slurs and perpetuating HIV/AIDS stigma with harmful comments, Logie says she’s reminded of how far we still have to go in challenging our biases. On August 2, rapper DaBaby apologized for homophobic comments he made during…